First community has been selected as one of the four banks in the country to work with the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in relation to the management of the Fund’s financing portfolio. In a high profile ceremony held at State House Nairobi on 10th December 2008, President Mwai Kibaki launched the Fund’s new strategic plan and the leverage agreements with the four partnership banks i.e First Community Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity Bank and Family Bank.

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund is a development initiative formed by the Government in 2007 to address the economic empowerment of the youth through enterprise development and strategic partnerships. The key mandate of the Fund is to support youth oriented micro, small and medium enterprises with start-up and growth oriented capital.

FCB’s participation in the Fund aims largely at ensuring that the financing support available from the Fund reaches Muslim youth in the country in a Sharia compliant manner. “We are a bank conscious of the development of our youth and we discovered that since the formation of the Fund about 2 years ago, not many Muslim youth benefited from the same because of its interest based nature. However, through our ‘Youth Advantage’ program,Muslim youth in the country can now benefit from the Fund” revealed FCB’s CEO Mr. Nathif Adam. Accordingly, the CEO urged Muslim youth in the country to come forward with practical business ideas to take advantage of the Fund.